Choral Series Bonus: Conversation with Patti Arntz

Patti Arntz joins Jocelyn for a conversation on today’s bonus episode! 

 

Patti has been a music educator and church musician in the Twin Cities area for over 40 years. She has degrees in music from Hamline University, St. Paul, MN and Drake University, Des Moines, IA and a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN.

She recently retired from teaching elementary music with the Robbinsdale Area Schools in the Twin Cities area. During her 30 years of instructing young children to sing and make music, she also directed the Robbinsdale All-District Elementary Honors Choir for 15 years. Throughout her teaching career, she served as an organist and director of youth/adult choirs in local churches.

In 2003, Patti was contacted by St. Olaf College to see if she would take a student teacher. The answer was yes, of course. That student teacher was Jocelyn Hagen. The favor was returned when Jocelyn served as a mentor for Patti’s compositions and arrangements.

 

In 2010, Patti commissioned Jocelyn to compose a children’s choir piece in memory of Teresa Benjamin, Assistant Director of the Robbinsdale Elementary Honor Choir. Teresa passed away in the spring of 2003. This composition, “I Started Out Singing,” has become very popular in recent years.

 

Keeping in touch with her elementary music roots, she serves as an adjunct professor at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minnesota, instructing elementary education majors on teaching and integrating music into their future classrooms.

 

Patti lives in the Twin Cities area with her husband, Rolland, where she enjoys outdoor activities, traveling and cooking. She sings with Singers in Accord and is a charter member of the choir. Her adult children, Kyle and Melani are both very involved in music in the Twin Cities area.

 

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Transcript PDF

 

Relevant Links:

 

Patti Arntz on social media: Instagram @pmarntz, Facebook @Patti Arntz.

A Quilt of Snow (available through Graphite Publishing for 2-part treble, SATB, or SSA choir and C instrument)

A Quilt of Snow Introduction

Performance of A Quilt of Snow by Vox Nova Chorale, Vicki Peters, Artistic Director

Robbinsdale All District Choir, MN

Odd Nordstoga